(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus capable of performing imaging in a plurality of modes.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
There have been high-functional and high-performance copiers developed in response to the market's demands, while there may occur the problem of such a machine being difficult for those who rarely use it to understand how to use because of the machine complexity.
There have been proposed a variety of multi-functional machines which, in addition to copy mode, have a multiple number of operation modes such as facsimile mode, printer mode, scanner mode, etc., and which allow the user to select a desired mode from the multiple modes and run the machine in the selected imaging mode. Machines of this kind should be provided as easy handling ones but they are generally hard to handle because of their high performances.
Under such circumstances, some recently commercialized copiers use a large display device in the control panel so as to provide careful and close guidance in the procedural job orders using pictorial representations with messages.
Such a configuration is able to provide understandable guidance for the user by displaying information with pictures and messages relating to the machine in the large display so as to allow the user to handle the machine without any concern. However, when a large display portion is used to provide many pieces of guidance information, the tonal representation has a limit because the display screen is monochrome, hence there is a limit to providing readily understandable guidance display of all the modes and functions.
A technology has been disclosed by the applicant hereof in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 11 No.15400 wherein a largish LCD panel is provided on a control panel so that the external outline of the main apparatus with peripheral devices is displayed in the approximately center thereof with the machine related information displayed around the outline and once the machine has changed in its mode, image information with messages to be given to the user will be displayed in a successively transitional manner so as to provide guidance.
However, the more understandable the guidance display, the more detailed information needs to be prepared. Hence, the display image information becomes bulky though the machine as a product has high enough operativity. Since the levels of users may be unequal, there is a fear that some users may keep the machine itself at a distance because the information given by the monochrome display is still not enough to understand how to use.
Disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 10 No.105001 is a copier having a multi-job mode which is provided with a color display device. However, this apparatus has a reservation copy function and provides only the guidance display of the contents of the reservation copy mode on the color display device by using a different color for each reservation copy mode and will not handle bulk display image information.